Will this be tomorrow's transportation?

[Egon]

Will the transporting industry be converted?

The technology seems to look Good.

[video]https://electrek.co/2016/07/20/tesla-semi-truck-business-cargo/[/video]

 

[2LaneCruzer]

She sure is purdy...but can she deliver?

 

[vvanders]

Doesn't seem too different than the Deisel-Electric locomotives out there now. Big concern is probably weight of the batteries and the fact that it's an unproven company.

That said electric transportation has been shown as viable over the last few years, and there's certainly savings to be made in braking, torque and drivetrain simplification.

 

[buickanddeere]

Batteries do not come free $$$ and they add weight. The hybrid system can add some efficiency from braking, some hill climbing additional power and stop light to stoplight boosted acceleration. Anybody that thinks solar panels on the roof and plugging it into an ordinary 120V, 15 amp u-ground receptacle for free power for 800-1200 miles a day does not understand numbers.

 

[zzvyb6]

Tesla can't survive without the huge government subsidies it gets. They should have gone belly up a year ago. I know some guys who are engineers at Tesla. (At least they pretend to be ones). They have to have help from their suppliers even to talk about product. A total shame company IMHO.

 

[turnkey4099]

Batteries do not come free $$$ and they add weight. The hybrid system can add some efficiency from braking, some hill climbing additional power and stop light to stoplight boosted acceleration. Anybody that thinks solar panels on the roof and plugging it into an ordinary 120V, 15 amp u-ground receptacle for free power for 800-1200 miles a day does not understand numbers.

Yep, until they solve the 'range' problem, electrics will remain a 'short trip' option. Some of the hybrids are onlyh good for about 30 miles on battery power.

 

[N80]

I have the solution to the range problem. The problem is infrastructure. Where do you go when your batteries are low? Where can you go to get energy for your vehicle quickly?

Well, to me it seems obvious: Standardized batteries. All cars will have the same batteries. There will be "filling" stations everywhere just as there are gas stations everywhere. You pull in and they remove your batteries and replace them with freshly charged ones. Yes, cars will have to be designed so that the battery packs are easy to remove. Yes, it will take some sort of standardized machinery to lift and insert the batteries in the car. Yes, at least at first, this may require an attendant to assist the motorist. Problem solved. You're welcome. ;-)

Same thing for trucks and truck stops. But, as mentioned above, why do the trucks need batteries? Why not a high efficiency diesel running at a constant RPM turning generators that turn electric motors just like the trains mentioned above. Yes, it will take significant downsizing, weight saving etc. Aren't we for to that?

 

[Egon]

Seems the hydrogen fuel cell can be "filled up" just the same as a diesel. It does not involve an electrical plug in.

[video]http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/basics.htm[/video]

 

[N80]

Only if and when they find a decent way to power the grid can those things make any sense at all.

We found it 50 years ago. It is called nuclear. The same people who brought us Solyndra effectively condemned nuclear to obsolescence. We had a new plant going in here locally. One of the first and only new ones in a long, long time (I've been told). Something, I'm not sure what, has stopped its construction. There is an active one near my house. Great local employer and you wouldn't ever know it was here except for the cooling tower plume.

 

[Thomas]

Not fond of the looks...guess Iam to old fashion.

 

[jerrybob]

Somebody should make a coal burning big rig.........forget this electric junk!:thumbsup:

 

[adventure bob]

Batteries have the same forward engineering thinking as combustion engines. While they did the trick when invented, they are centuries old technologies that aren't really efficient or useful in todays want for a power storage device that's clean and efficient. Liquid fuels are about the most efficient thing weve come up with to date for the storage and transport of energy. Problem is the conversion from energy storage to work, the combustion engine or some derivation thereof, is way inefficient and now, too polluting.
Id agree that tesla is just creating a better buggy whip. Musk applying some cool thing to age old technologies and incrementally improving them. Its not revolutionary. People came up with great improvement to the ice process, just before the refrigeration became widespread. That's where we are with the combustion engine.

 

[turnkey4099]

I have the solution to the range problem. The problem is infrastructure. Where do you go when your batteries are low? Where can you go to get energy for your vehicle quickly?

Well, to me it seems obvious: Standardized batteries. All cars will have the same batteries. There will be "filling" stations everywhere just as there are gas stations everywhere. You pull in and they remove your batteries and replace them with freshly charged ones. Yes, cars will have to be designed so that the battery packs are easy to remove. Yes, it will take some sort of standardized machinery to lift and insert the batteries in the car. Yes, at least at first, this may require an attendant to assist the motorist. Problem solved. You're welcome. ;-)

Same thing for trucks and truck stops. But, as mentioned above, why do the trucks need batteries? Why not a high efficiency diesel running at a constant RPM turning generators that turn electric motors just like the trains mentioned above. Yes, it will take significant downsizing, weight saving etc. Aren't we for to that?

Replacing batteries does not fix the range problem. YOu would still need to make frequent stops (as in 'every 100 miles' at least) -that kills over the road trucking..

 

[sseelhoff]

A startup just showed why hydrogen vehicles are better than electric — but there's a catch - Yahoo Finance

 

[Egon]

Hydrogen fuelled was also mentioned in the first post attachment but seems to have been missed by some.

The entire concept is intriguing. There are some submarines that use hydrogen fuel cells for extremely quiet submersible operation. Add to this that hydrogen could be produced using green energy at those times there is overproduction of electricity.

 

[STx]

We found it 50 years ago. It is called nuclear. The same people who brought us Solyndra effectively condemned nuclear to obsolescence. We had a new plant going in here locally. One of the first and only new ones in a long, long time (I've been told). Something, I'm not sure what, has stopped its construction. There is an active one near my house. Great local employer and you wouldn't ever know it was here except for the cooling tower plume.

The Fukushima accident killed nuclear power plant construction. They were just about to start construction on a second reactor in Texas when that happened as well, that project has also been scrapped.

 

[jerrybob]

The Fukushima accident killed nuclear power plant construction. They were just about to start construction on a second reactor in Texas when that happened as well, that project has also been scrapped.

They just finally capped Chernobyl......

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/world/europe/chernobyl-disaster-cover.html?_r=0